Club Information

1988 Windham Wrestling Club was established by Tom Spudic, John Bennet, Shirdza Ahmadi and Steve Merlino

The mission of the club at the time was to have an open mat format where high schoolers and adults could come in and wrestle. There was no real instruction going on but if you wanted to learn, the adults there would take the time to help you out. The location of the club at that time was in the Kramer Middle School Cafeteria. It was basically for the adults to have a place to train because they were still competing at the veteran level in Olympic style wrestling, but it was beneficial for high school wrestlers as well.

In 1998 Greg Laflam and Jaime Poulin, both former Windham High School wrestlers started the Windham Youth Wrestling Program through the Windham Recreation Department. The mission of the program was to provide wrestling skills with instruction and to have the members compete in youth tournaments around Connecticut.

In 2000 Rafael Calixto returned to Windham after wrestling in college and became an assistant coach with Pat Risley at Windham High School. In 2001 Rafael took over the Windham Wrestling Club which was still an open mat format, with Steve Merlino running the Club and doing a great job. Rafael and Steve met to discuss the future of the Club and they both wanted to create a more competitive atmosphere and have a club team to travel to tournaments. At this time Peter Decarli, also a former Windham High School wrestler, Greg Laflam and Rafael Calixto, decided to combine their efforts and unite the youth, middle school, high school and open clubs under a single club. At this time there were a lot of wrestlers coming to the Club for instructional help and work outs from many surrounding towns in addition to the Windham/ Willimantic area. That's when it was decided to come up with the name the official Club name, Silverback Wrestling Club.

The Silverback Wrestling Club has members from age 4 to college and older age groups. The Club is considered one of the most successful clubs in Connecticut and New England, as well as one of the largest clubs in the state. Not to mention one of the oldest in New England.

So that's a brief history of the Silverback Wrestling Club. Through this club we are not only teaching and coaching a sport but are providing opportunities for kids to improve their lives. Learning life lessons, becoming State champions, going on to college, and learning to give back to the community are all a part of our mission.

Where the Club is now:

Our mission is to create Champions on and off the mat! To get our wrestlers wrestling in college and to build and help mold great people that will give back some day. We focus on teaching from the very basic to the most advance techniques the sport has to offer.

Presently, we average about 80 members a year. About 40 of those are between the ages of 4 and 12. The rest are high school age and college age students. We go to many tournaments year round and our club has produced some of Connecticut's best. We have also produced wrestlers that have placed at the national level. This included youth, middle school, and high school and college age group wrestlers. Our club is a place where the sport of wrestling is our focus. It allows our members to travel and see different places. They get to meet different kids and build friendships that will last a life time. It is also instills values that hard work and discipline are great building blocks for life.

The biggest reason we are successful is because of the community help we get and the great coaches and parents that volunteer their time to help out. We have many coaches that have wrestled at Windham under Coach Crudden and Pat Risley so they all understand the coaching philosophy and we work well as a team. We also have many coaches that were great wrestlers in High School and College and know the sport. Our coaching staff is one of the most experienced and knowledgeable in the area. The great thing about our club is it's more like a family than a club. Any money we raise goes directly to the kids and to sponsor trips to tournaments and for uniforms.

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